Research co-authored by Assistant Professor Kristin Roland examines the relation between pension plan payout horizon and pension asset allocation using information from SFAS 132(R) mandated disclosures.
Kristin Roland, assistant professor of accounting in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, co-authored the paper “Expected Benefit Payments and Asset Allocation in Defined Benefit Plans Post-SFAS 132(R),” which is forthcoming in Accounting Horizons.
Roland co-authored this paper with Alan Blankley of Samford University and Philip Hong of Central Michigan University.
The paper’s abstract reads:
“We contribute to the literature examining defined benefit pension plan asset allocation in the post-SFAS 132(R) reporting environment. SFAS 132(R) requires firms to disclose the expected annual pension benefit payments, thus providing a direct way to measure pension plan payout horizon. Controlling for previously-documented determinants of pension asset allocation, we find evidence that a payout horizon measure constructed from SFAS 132(R) disclosures is associated with the firm’s pension investment decisions. Specifically, we document that firms with a greater proportion of pension obligations due in the short horizon allocate a smaller portion of their plan assets to equity investments. Additionally, we provide evidence that our proposed measure explains asset allocation over and above previously-used proxies representing plan horizon, confirming the usefulness of the 132(R) mandated disclosures.”
Roland was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte until joining Elon University’s faculty in 2017. Two of her other papers, “Meeting-or-Beating, Earnings Management, and Investor Sensitivity after the Scandals,” and “Market Reaction to Auditor Ratification Vote Tally,” have also been published in Accounting Horizons.